Controls?

[JustJeff88]

I was considering picking up the Anthology during the brief sale, but I was wondering about controls. I'm a big fan of the old FPS games in the mould of Doom/Wolfenstein/Heretic and the like. I really like the Blake Stone games, and I have them on GOG, but the lack of WASD movement and mouselook kills them for me. There are wrappers, such as zdoom, that let you play all of the other games I mentioned with modern controls, and they are absolutely great.

I know that the product page says something about "partial controller support", but I don't play FPS games with controllers; nothing beats a mouse. I was just wondering if anyone who picked up this package earlier had tried them out and if there were more modern controller options, particularly for Blake Stone (and Wolfenstein to a lesser extent). If so, I'm sold. If not, I think that I'll give it a miss.

[Blackmantis]

Originally Posted by JustJeff88

I was considering picking up the Anthology during the brief sale, but I was wondering about controls. I'm a big fan of the old FPS games in the mould of Doom/Wolfenstein/Heretic and the like. I really like the Blake Stone games, and I have them on GOG, but the lack of WASD movement and mouselook kills them for me. There are wrappers, such as zdoom, that let you play all of the other games I mentioned with modern controls, and they are absolutely great.

I know that the product page says something about "partial controller support", but I don't play FPS games with controllers; nothing beats a mouse. I was just wondering if anyone who picked up this package earlier had tried them out and if there were more modern controller options, particularly for Blake Stone (and Wolfenstein to a lesser extent). If so, I'm sold. If not, I think that I'll give it a miss.

Hey JustJeff,

Depending on the game, mouse-looking can be used. Titles produced on the BUILD engine etc (Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior) retain the ability to look around using a mouse (either moving around with the mouse, or looking up / down).

Games built on raycaster engines (such as Wolfenstein 3D and Blake Stone) retain the ability to use the mouse soley for the purpose of moving around, but looking up and down properly was not considered possible on Raycaster engines back in the day (although Ken Silverman made this possible in Duke Nukem 3D etc)

So yes, if you buy this pack, you can re-map your keys to W A S D and use the mouse to look around if you find this works easier for you. I did all of the trailers seen on the 3DR game pages for each 3d shooter, and I used the mouse for those. It definitely makes a huge difference. Strafe-left and Strafe-right are not available in some earlier titles like Wolf3d (See my last paragraph).

I will say, it doesn't quite have the feel of a modern 3d shooter when looking around, but it's more than ample for accuracy and hitting a target.

In earlier titles like Wolf3d and Blake Stone, there was not generally a "Strafe left" or "Strafe right", but rather a "strafe" key. However, I found that after about 3 minutes of playing, I picked up on the tactic of pressing and holding the right mouse button to strafe left and right, and my left hand using the movement keys on the keyboard took care of the rest. You'll be whipping around corners and blasting enemies in no time!